Legislators step into project row

Apparently just aiming to mediate a dispute over the stalled sewer line project in southern Saipan, two ranking members of the Legislature yesterday slammed the door for any financial assistance to help resolve differences between the ports authority and utility corporation.

Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez and Rep. David M. Apatang, who each chair the committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications in the Senate and the House, respectively, said they would sit down with CPA and CUC officials to try to work out a solution on the long-standing problem.

“We would like to see the project completed and the squabbling between CUC and CPA to cease,” Villagomez said. “Some agencies should share responsibility and CPA must accept the fact that they have screwed up.”

When asked if the legislature would appropriate money for its completion, he said “why don’t (CUC and CPA) cough out the money?”

Apatang, on the other hand, made no commitment whether the House could assist the two agencies on the problem-ridden project, saying the Legislature allocated two years ago some $2 million from the budget at that time which did not pass both chambers.

“We will see what we can do to assist them and come up with an agreement,” he said in a separate interview.

Both legislators are attending a meeting today between the two agencies brokered by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio who has stepped into the squabble following collapse of earlier negotiations to settle the contractor’s claims of some $1.9 million in unpaid fees.

CPA has threatened to shut down construction of the half-completed project due to refusal by the government-owned utility firm to share the cost of the settlement which it maintained should be capped at $750,000.

Its executive director, Carlos H. Salas, earlier has prodded lawmakers to take a “more aggressive role” in negotiating a settlement with Pacific Drilling Limited.

“We applaud the Legislature for trying to mediate but I think they need to step forward and provide financial assistance,” he told reporters last Friday.

The contractor has demanded payment of the claims — which represented mobilization fees and other charges incurred when construction was halted in May last year due to lack of funds — after CUC and CPA reached an agreement late last year to resume work on the project.

The new wastewater collection pipeline, costing more than $4 million, runs from the airport to the Agingan Waste Water Treatment Plant benefiting some 1,000 households.

Authorities have warned further delay could pose public health risk as ground water supply in the area is prone to contamination, prompting the legislature to intervene in an attempt to push the project.

But CUC and CPA have refused to budge despite recent negotiations to work out a deal on how to settle Pacific Drilling’s claims.

Calling the project a “colossal mistake” by CPA, utility officials maintained the problem is not part of the memorandum of agreement providing 70-30 share on the construction cost, with CUC assuming the bulk, but added this arrangement should not apply on the claims.